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Friday, April 08, 2011

Brand Power Truth

What is it that gives a brand power? Is it merely recognition due to saturation advertising? Certainly that may be the case for smaller businesses in a market with no well identified leader.

An example of this in Melbourne was an annoying, but mildly amusing ad for a blinds business. This name recognition has definitely given them an advantage over their competitors. Are their blinds any better than their competition? Well their ads don’t mention any points of difference in their ads.

But what about if your competitor is as well known as yourself. Your competitor is #1 and you are just behind them as #2, but are close to overtaking them?

Such is the situation with Microsoft and Apple, although strictly speaking, Microsoft is in the software market and Apple in the hardware, but there are many more advocates for the Apple operating system on their computers, than there are for Microsoft. This is not due to more advertising as in the blinds business example.

The advocates for Apple are comfortable paying a higher price for Apple products than their competitors. While superior design and a coolness factor are often sited, for the first time the real secret behind Apple’s band power is revealed in the video below.

I always try to tell clients that if you don't have a strong, proud branding position, all you are doing is promoting your competitors. If your site/ad is all about "You need insurance or you will not survive an accident" you are convincing them to buy insurance - and chances are your competitor's ad/site is better branded and more convincing. If your ad says "You need OUR insurance because when the worst happens, we guarantee the fastest response and have the highest pay out percentage" - only then are you selling your products. So many clients don't realise!